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An important component of disciple making is self-feeding. Self-feeding refers to items that must be evident in our lives if we are to become disciples worth reproducing. We should be producers not just consumers.

Every believer should be self-feeding. We need to make sure that we aren’t viewing our Sunday church service as the time to be fed spiritually – and not doing anything on our own the other days of the week. The purpose of the leaders in our church, according to Ephesians 4:11-12, is to equip us for ministry not to feed us.

We need to understand how to look for and identify a “man of peace” as they enter new communities. This term comes from Matthew 10 and Luke 10 when Jesus is giving instructions to His disciples. Essentially, a man or woman of peace is someone who is responsive and has a circle of influence and will open the door to that circle.

In this, the 28th edition of MoreDisciples Podcast, Doug interviews Roy Moran, then Doug & Eric try to digest everything they learn about hybrid churches — those congregations trying to combine traditional beachhead church approaches with disciple making movement approaches. Here’s a worksheet mentioned during the podcast on 7 Journeys.

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Episode 23 of More Disciples (the Podcast) features the Christmas and goalsetting Review/Celebration of the org that Doug Lucas leads, Team Expansion. The org focuses on multiplying disciples and churches among the unreached and, in this episode, Doug and his friend, Allan, turn a bunch of interviews into a quasi radio show. Merry Christmas to all who listen!

In this, our 17th Podcast at More Disciples, Allan and I interact with Troy Cooper regarding the “4 Fields” model for making disciples who make disciples. You can also download a 150-page book about the 4-Fields model by Nathan Shank.

Dean Trune is the Director of Intentional Impact Ministries. He spoke recently at a PrayerWeekend staged at Team Expansion’s base, Emerald Hills, in Louisville, Kentucky. In this, our 16th Episode of MoreDisciples Podcast, we feature his opening session, “Living on our Mission Field.”

What would it take to insure that there was “no place left” in Tulsa where Christ’s Name had not been named? That’s Bryan King’s quest. Check out his conclusions in this, our August 2016 webinar, the second in series of four webinars.

On March 16th, 2016, we featured the third webinar in the series, “How to get Your Church Involved in Disciple Making.” This edition was entitled, “My Friend Just Asked, ‘What About God?’ – Now What?” and it featured David Watson, author of Contagious Disciple Making, and DMM trainer with CityTeam and Doug Lucas, discussing…

If your ultimate purpose in life is to glorify God, then making disciples should be near tops on your list for how to go about fulfilling this. Sharing your testimony will be integral in this endeavor. So will prayer, especially to discern when and where. Years ago I was praying about what to preach at one of our favorite supporting churches. Each time I prayed, the Spirit living in me said, “Share your testimony.” For several weeks I battled this “bad idea.” In sermons we generally look ahead, rather than look back. So, eventually, I wrote another sermon, which would be typical for a returning missionary. On the Sunday morning in question, I got up to speak, with sermon in hand. As I looked out over the congregation, I felt like Jonah running away from Nineveh. So, with a deep sigh, I put the sermon away, and with no notes (no net), completely through the Spirit, began to unpack my suitcase. Apparently, God knew what I didn’t; and as I shared sometimes painful life lesson, people to my left were in tears, people to my right, and people straight ahead. Definitely, the Holy Spirit was at work in hearts. Go figure — God knew hearts and needs better than I. When the invitation was offered many responded — Praise the Lord! Completely drained, I was relieved to be going off to the safety of the Sunday School missions presentation. Then, rudely, after what seemed like only a few minutes, a deacon interrupted, and said, “We need to go!” “Go where?” I asked. “Second service,” was the reply. I groaned.

Last year we heard the harrowing testimony of a woman who had nearly died while fleeing her war-torn African nation. Her story of adversity, her conviction that God has rescued her for a purpose and her boldness in sharing her new-found faith — are all truly humbling. Chris, who plays the drums on one of our worship teams has resisted giving his life completely to Christ for nearly 20 years. In that time he has heard hundreds of sermons. Yet, on March 15, of 2015; Chris was immersed into Christ by Faith, from Africa. You never know who the Lord will rescue through the power of the Holy Spirit as you share your testimony.

Currently, I’m really interested in understanding how to integrate DMM principles in an existing (traditional, program-driven) church. How would that work? Jon Ralls recommended this article for starters. We’ve attached it to begin the discussion.

So my initial questions are:

What are the essentials to include in a four-lesson compressed introduction to Disciple Making Movement principles?

How do we connect the dots to the REST of the story (possibly through something like the 30-Day Challenge)?

How do we hold one another accountable actually to IMPLEMENT as well as LEARN?

We’ve been back in the US for nearly 2 years, and hit the ground running. We spent the first year raising up and training small group leaders. The second year we’ve spent launching small groups. Why do I mention this? Well, what brings the greatest joy: making and training disciples, or watching those same disciples make more disciples? Truly, it is a greater joy being a grandparent in the faith. How fulfilling it is to see those you raised up going way beyond what you envisioned possible! Jesus did amazing things, but said his disciples would do even “greater things than these” (John 14:12). How cool is that!

Curtis Sergeant’s non-stop finger snapping sure got old quickly. But, isn’t it surreal to imagine that each snap is a soul that is forever lost. We might console ourselves by thinking that we don’t know them — until, one of those snaps is someone we know: maybe a friend, a family member, a neighbor or a co-worker dies suddenly. Grief hurts! Can we imagine knowing and loving every single person represented by every finger snap? God can. God does. The people on my list: members of my golf league and my neighbors — may I be found faithful.

Again, in Taiwan, decisions to accept Christ were seldom made quickly. Baptism was seen as a point of no return to the old way life; and the beginning of persecution for many new believers. We would ask them to prepare their testimony and share it with the church on the day they gave their life to Christ. Makes sense, since they were going to be defending their faith from the get-go! And, it set a pattern, an expectation, for the believers to come. When we were called to Memorial, they asked me to bring “my missions mind-set.” My response was, “Are you sure about that?” The leadership was, and we have — including, training everyone to prepare and share their testimony. God can do amazing things when we faithfully share how God has rescued us!

When we were missionaries in sub-tropical Taiwan, most of the year it was really hot and humid. Prayer walking needed to be done in the early morning, or evening (which fits the city-never-sleeps culture nicely). I chose to prayer jog in the mornings. I would run past the temples and pray for them to be empty of people. I would run inside the stadium and pray that one day it will be filled with believers singing praise to the Lord. I would jog past the homes of new believers and pray for them to be strong in the Lord. I would jog past my neighbors and pray, “Lord, give me opportunities to share the Gospel with them; the boldness and the words (Chinese) to speak your truth with love.” Often, on those early morning runs, while most of the city still slept; I would listen for God’s voice. Most of the Kingdom things we did came from listening to the Lord. Like Joshua and the Israelites marching faithfully around Jericho — good things happen when you prayer walk.

Day 29: Unreached Peoples. Where I live, I pretty much assume that everyone has had the opportunity to hear about Christ. I am finding more and more that this is not necessarily the case, but there are definitely opportunities for most Americans to hear the gospel at least once. It is insane to me that there continue to be whole people groups who have never even had the opportunity to hear about a God who loves them and wants a relationship with them.

There was once a time that my husband and I were planning to head overseas to spread the gospel of Christ with an unreached people group. Then some unexpected things happened which have required us to stay here for at least a while. It is sometimes hard to feel like you have a place in reaching unreached people groups when you can’t go be with them teaching them about the gospel and showing them the love of Christ, but there is SO much that we can do. We can start with prayer. Every great Christian movement was first covered in prayer. I think sometimes we underestimate the power of prayer because we don’t have the faith that God will actually listen to us or come through for us, but prayer is SO powerful. A great way to start this is through using an app that was recommended to me called JP Unreached. It is the Joshua Project in app form. It gives you an “unreached people group of the day” and a little bit of information about that people group so that you can somewhat more specifically pray for an unreached group of people in the world. Another thing we can do is give. There are many missionaries that you can support that are sharing the gospel to unreached people groups. They need funding to be able to continue the work that they are doing. We can also encourage. I once had a friend spend a summer in Russia working with a local church there. When she came home she talked about how hard it was to feel disconnected from people at home. She said people wrote for the first few weeks, but then seemed to forget about her. IF it is safe for you to send mail, an email, or connect with them on social media, take some time to write a missionary an encouraging note to let them know you are praying for the work they are doing. Lastly, we can go. We all have a place to be spreading the gospel. For you, it might not mean an unreached people group, but it could mean an unreached person. You might go to another country and share the love of Christ in a location not your own. Or you might stay where you are; in many areas, especially around college campuses, there are members of unreached people groups right at your back door. You just have to open your eyes to where the gospel isn’t.

“I was reading this morning that God knows everything. What do you think about that?

“Why don’t you go back to your community and see what they think about it.”

Not a person of peace unless they can go back to community and able to discuss spiritual matters

In fact, Satan may send them to distract you from finding the person of peace, if they are not willing to share

You can still fellowship with them but don’t spiritually invest

People that bring back questions and comments from family and friends and then help them understand and look for themselves and ask what they think.

Learning takes place in dialogue not monologue

Step 4 Move toward formalizing it by negotiating with them

“We’ve been having a lot of spiritual conversations and coming from the Holy Book I read. Can we sit down and read together and walk through process together with family and friends? You can see it directly instead of my opinion.”

This leads to DBS group

Step 5 Immediately identify spiritual leader in group (this may or may not be the person of peace)

Coach them to lead the group (not me)

If I lead a group, Im the expert and nobody will talk or come up with ideas

If I coach a person from their own group that’s “lost” to just ask the questions to the group, their discussion is much more animated.

Questions may come back to me through person I’m coaching

Realizes doesn’t take an expert, it just takes them, Word of God and studying to come to a place of giving their life to Christ

House of Prayer – How does your house begin to look like that among a people group?

Prayer Walking – Walk around own community and pray. People will engage you and ask questions.

“I’m a person of prayer and I would love to pray for you and any problems you may have and giving thanks to God for things that are happening in your life.”

Never had the lost turn down prayer. Pastors and Christians have…but not the lost.

Even in hindu, muslim, Buddhist, animist – they want someone spiritual to be talking about

Most common request is health and second is financial (poverty/provision for food/school)

Engage them in prayer in community

Keep prayers conversational

“Who are you talking to?”

“I’m talking to God. He calls me His friend so I talk to Him like a friend.”

Word gets out that you’re a person of prayer and people come to your house

Prayer alter in foyer. First thing people see.

Globe, Bible, 3 element light (trinity), Cross and prayer list (book we open that people can sign into it)

God begins to answer prayers in peoples lives. When there’s something done outside of what I could do, they start to pay attention and want to know more about this God because we haven’t been seeing this from our god.

People start talking about prayer and a community around those spiritual issues begins to form and they want to know more.

24/7 Prayer Room – Paul Rogers, Elder from Church in Indiana. Prayer team has created 24/7 prayer room. Watch this video: https://vimeo.com/159434859

Going from “Hi” or prayer to a DBS

Movement starter – My role isn’t to win a soul to Christ or to start a church. I start a movement, which is churches starting churches

Think about the multiplication from the beginning.

Don’t see an individual in need of God. See a doorway to a community that is in need of God.

It’s a group process…not typically done as an individual.

I coach the leader and avoid stepping into the group. If I do, it usually will not replicate.

Relationship – still engage and fellowship in community with them but not in group

Those groups begin to multiply and can even start more groups before they are believers. Very common

Alot of cultures you work with have a teacher/guru mentality, one central spiritual authority that tells you what to think, believe and do.

Move to John 6:43-45 Jesus says the Father is going to be your teacher. Everyone who listens and learns from God will come to Christ.

How can I get people to listen to God and not from me or my church? We will see at some point, these groups will multiply.

Only about 20% of groups you start will continue. That means you aren’t wasting your time.

Those that do go through completion of receiving Christ, living as a Christian, character issues, learning how to be a church, learning how to be leaders and equipping them through the same DBS process. Everything points back to His Word.

Question: Process sounds fuzzy. Groups grow 5-8. What does it look like when it splits?

Never hiving or splitting. That will destroy them.

Start new groups with new people. Everyone in group has relationships. Instead of bringing them in and catching them up, let’s start another group with them. They start the same process from beginning. Now coaching 2 facilitators, etc.

Focus on groups that continue, not ones that quit.

This can take up to a half year where they love or hate God but still believe in Jesus. But 25-30 come to Christ. Establish relationship with God not me.

Believers start having group meetings which develop into churches.

Describe how DBS started in an example

Largest is still going. Started in 1994 and it’s up to over 200,000 churches with avg church size of 60. No limitations because in country densely populated.

Over 36,000 churches in last 10 years in Muslim environment in Africa.

Jeff Sandall in North Carolina is over 1,000 groups in US

Some start in US and jump to other countries and grow more quickly

Potential is always astounding. Not unusual at year 3 to see 500-600 new churches (not groups) (especially in Africa)

Size varies on community.

Muslim cap around 30

Nonmuslim caps around 65

Leadership issues – Take a lot of training for larger size

Government Restrictions on meeting size

China – only allows families or groups of 8 to meet

Insider can take a spiritual conversation much deeper than an outsider

Ideas move or fail very quickly so you aren’t wasting time

Lots of time meeting, praying, coaching, mentoring church leaders.

Starts slowly. Stay with it 3-4 years.

Spend 2-4 years with leadership and church but during that time they may start 20-25 more churches. I focus on growing leaders and they take over evangelism side.

Encourage them and challenging them to expand.

If church doesn’t reproduce by 2 years, they wont. Don’t give them my time.

Focus on leaders that are doing something, facing extreme problems but still moving.

Harder cross cultural issue isn’t race but religion

Questions

What difference does the context make when you see these work? For example, working on approach like this in the West versus doing in place never heard the Gospel? Not used to prayer answered in miraculous way.

Easiest place to do this is no contact or adversity against Christianity at all. No preconceived ideas. Don’t even use “Christian” or “church”.

Muslims taught that we are corrupt. Start with moral sections. “Does this sound corrupt to you?” Then broaden reading so they realize it is historical dialogue.

Hardest is Western and highly Christianized area like South Korea.

Expectations of what a church is becomes a filter for everything they hear. When you help them deconstruct this, they will start to listen to the Word again.

Maybe left church in anger

Did business with a Christian and cheated me. Christians sleep around.

I want to learn to be a friend of God. (John 15 No longer slave but friend)

Most cultures friend means something

Ask “What do you think it means to be a friend of God?”

Worst thing you can do is mix people that don’t know God with people that think they know God as Christians. Those groups rarely succeed.

How do you adapt the group to the US context if you have to when in Western society? What questions are helpful? Does it look exactly the same?

We don’t change anything. Same everywhere we go.

As the groups begin to start 2nd & 3rd generation groups, do you find people are members of more than one group? How does that work?

Don’t encourage them to be member of two groups. Be member of primary group and then coaching the facilitator in other group. (1 hr/wk)

If a person is a FT missionary, they have plenty of time. If person has FT job. What’s typical number of hours per week? What can a wife/mother can do?

Any gender can engage in this with their circle of influence

Spent most of my life as FT worker and missionary

8-10 hours/week to ministry, you can start groups that replicate. Maybe a little slower because coaching time. This alone can be 25-30 hrs/week.

What scriptures can a person can/should include? After you get through discovering God set, and discovering obedience set, what’s next? Where do you start?

We will explore the possibilities of growing your church, both internally and externally, through the magic of multiplication

Since 1970’s, Dr. Patterson trained pastors and planted churches in Central America, then continued training church planters at Western Seminary (1989-2007)

Why obedience? Booklet written in 70’s “Obedience-Oriented Education and Evangelism by Extension” (Later changed to “Theological Education and Evangelism by Extension”)

I went to teach in traditional Bible institute with classroom training with theory that would multiply churches but it didn’t work. Had hundreds of villages to reach.

Shifted to extension in villages to teach elder types, win them to Christ, train them in homes.

God blessed & church started to multiply

Snag

Older pastors/students opposed it because they weren’t ordained by their standards

Baptisms & Lords supper “not valid”

Obedience to Jesus comes before man-made rules

Curtis Sergeant – orthodoxy vs orthopraxy = knowledge vs obedience

How did it play out?

Went to one village and his disciple went to others

15 yrs almost 100 churches started. Nothing compared to today but great for “the day”

Home churches unheard of

Did everything “wrong” but basic principles from New Testament (NT)

Same or Different from DMM?

Similar, attuned to NT, power of Holy Spirit, glorify Christ above all and keep things simple to multiply rapidly

Curtis has clarified NT principles and easy to follow

George uses NT as filter. If church policy/practice not required in NT…it’s out. Keep to what Christ and apostles have commanded. All healthy movements use this filter.

Audience Question: Patterson’s book “Come Quickly Dawn” – written in Spanish to train pastors in Honduras, novel story, traditional church works their way through problems and hundreds of home churches. Based on true events. People learn better from illustration instead of abstract lecture.

Movements Surprising?

The most productive decade in history. Surprise or expectation? Not surprise because NT teaches multiplication & reproduction. Christ’s parables show this and multiplication is God’s norm but vastly neglected. But surprised by extent that multiplication carried. What they saw in Central America doesn’t compare. Thrilled me to see Holy Spirit work.

Recommendations for DMMs?

Movements started by missionaries with traditional background. Have principles but not experience. I beg you not to try to work the principles mechanically. Doesn’t work. Have a passionate love for Christ that motivates them. If you love Me obey my commands…this produces the movement.

Biggest errors – come from Western background with separate programs. Need to integrate, combine spiritual gifts, blend pastoral training with church planting, 1 Cor 12, Eph 4, Rom 12, Do all to the glory of Christ. Less book reading/ abstraction and jump in and obey Jesus out of passionate love.

Tough to teach passion – more caught than taught. Can’t teach. Take an apprentice on a trip to see the churches multiply. A day or two observing will do far more than months of lecture/books. Model as Jesus and Paul. Let them make mistakes. Learn much faster and accurately.

Model in Honduras – take a principle, teach it, hold them accountable to 65 topics to emphasize.

Kept track to what his disciple would agree to do. Next time, had him report for accountability in presence of other trainees, peer pressure

I must share fully responsibility for them doing it effectively in Holy Spirit as they are.

Bible college about regurgitation of words, phrases & beliefs but you held them accountable to commands of Christ and other NT commands. God holding them accountable and holding themselves accountable.

Taught academic, accountable to obedience & then multiply 2 Tim 2:2

Married to Booklets? – some being trained were poor readers, and they couldn’t afford books. So made tiny booklets that got right to the point. Made it easy to read and do.

Paul-Timothy.net – Galen Currah’s site – George Patterson’s legacy 117 free study booklets – walk person through practice and then obedience in a simplified way. 60 languages around the world. Needed them for home churches in India.

This idea of accountability & obedience built into DBS (Discovery Bible Studies), 3/3rds. How could you imagine these practices integrated with local church in USA today. Preachers speaks, people return every week but how do we know they are leaving and applying. How can we integrate these NT principles?

It is happening now – traditional churches starting to send workers from their church to start home churches for people that will not attend traditional church

Key – don’t ever require whole congregation to change. Every church has a few members that are eager to do more for Christ and serve. Ministry positions filled so sit frustrated. Free them and turn them loose to start home churches. Require what Christ and apostles required and nothing else. Can retain mother church doctrine and denomination but not held to man-made rules but amazing to what can happen through the Holy Spirit.

Church needs to simplify programming so people can focus on multiplication? Overly busy and lose sight of the core things?

Jesus was the great simplifier. Took Torah and reduced them to one sentence. To simplify you must know core issues of Christ’s/apostles commands and apostolic practices

For Westerners, greatest difficulty in simplifying, way too slow in obeying Jesus

Ethiopian asked to be baptized immediately

Don’t delay in obeying Jesus, delay is decay

Rapid obedience

What if not pastor yet…attending meetings…how do we hold them accountable? May not even be believer. Word “pastor” was used once in NT for humans besides Jesus (Eph 4). Concept of Sr Pastor I respect but not in NT. Shepherding always done by elders. Not hung up on it. Don’t hold to manmade rules to who can baptize. Phillip did and was not an ordained pastor.

We have formalized roles more than what was done in NT and placed unrealistic conditions that slow movement down.

Person not believer but interested – prepare them for next meeting for them to tell a story about Jesus and will convert themselves.

One of greatest enemies of free flow of God’s grace in America is we are all striving for excellence, let’s lower the bar/standards until they are just Biblical.

House churches growing without high-tech and high academic programs with no place in scripture. Impossible model to imitate. Must be able to imitate for multiplication.

Americans are “satisfied” “wealthy”. Multiplication will happen among younger, post moderns, poorer. Not in older denominations that traditions are so heavy that they are impossible to reproduce rapidly.

Rabbit vs Elephant – Elephant = longer gestation and one baby.

Stop making idol of “bigness”- easier to win people to Christ in their own home or friend’s, own people, clothes

Mentor and Multiply Website – passion to see 1,000 come to Christ and must be done through thinking small and house churches. Larger congregation, the less members are involved in evangelism per member. Christian Schwartz proved this through research, greatest hindrance is size.

Any changes you would make?

More skill modeling – less lecture/books/classroom. Train like Christ and Paul.

More careful about holiness in my own life. I would get careless. Lost temper on field, not very loving. Be more gentle & patient except about obeying Jesus and expecting people to grow.

Go with someone who is actually planting, go to learn, keep mouth shut, observe, learn, take notes, ask questions…not to bless the poor. Short time doing that is worth more than studying about it.

One thing taught with most feedback — out of love for Jesus, obey Him above and before all else. Memorize His basic commands: repent, believe, be baptized, Lords supper, love, pray, make disciples Lord blesses that if done in love & obedience

Ironically, a lot of unbelievers come to the Lord if they get into a 3/3 group. With a group of unbelievers you only have to make very small adjustments to the format. They discover that the Bible is relevant and begin to learn about the character and nature of God, etc. Of course, the accountability time looks a little bit different than with believers, but it is still similar. In some ways it functions the way the Law does in relation to the Gospel. The Law shows people their need for grace. If people are unable to follow through on their commitments, it can function in the same way at times. Even if that doesn’t happen, people are often drawn to the Bible and to the Lord through the process. It provides a good opportunity to discover spiritual truth in community with others whom they know. They also begin to learn about multiplication, hermeneutics, community, etc.

I love stories! Stories of others inspire me and changed life stories of how God got a hold of someone really inspire me. Something we don’t do enough is share our stories. We have been practicing in our discipleship group being able to tell our stories in under 3 minutes. It has been a fun game. Well, tonight I listened to the video and read what to do quickly as I was running 100 mph today. At 8:30 I was supposed to go to discipleship group but my 7 year old daughter would not let me leave as the babysitter came. So I ended up staying home helping my 4 & 7 year old girls go to bed until my wife got back at 9:30 with my teenage boys from their track meet. I left in a rush and showed up at discipleship group. As I sat down they guys said “Your turn. We just got done telling our stories and critiquing them and it is your turn.” I chuckled, but they were serious. So I gave my testimony leaving out some details they had heard before and changing my story line back and forth. I didn’t come prepared(shame on me!) When I got done a few of the guys were honest and graceful with me on how I could make it better. They stated that maybe you should work on 3 testimonies with 3 story lines and you should write them all out. This was great advice as I sometimes don’t finish things well or think through things well enough. I am going to work on that and get them done this week….stay tuned. The stories I connect with most are well thought out and have purpose. One of the guys suggested that next time we split into pairs and share our story but whoever you are sharing your story with gets to tell you about the person you would be sharing with. You could choose someone who has been hurt by the church, someone going through a death, a teenager, etc. I thought this was a great idea! It is good to practice and be ready for different situations.

Why do we not take evangelism seriously? We think planning makes us feel rehearsed and not real but I feel like God gives us tools to use. I listened to a local pastor recently share about evangelism. He asked the group “In farming who grows the crops?” Everyone responded well duh “God does.” He then said “So, do you just throw the seed out and have it grow?” They stated “No, of course not.” He then went on to explain that you use the tools God has given you such as tractors and GPS and other technology to do it well. He then challenged us that God has given us tools for evangelism and we don’t prepare at all. He then stated that he asked most people in his church if a non-Christian came to your door and asked why you lived the way you do what would you say? A majority of his church could not give a response. He then challenged everyone and said we should all be able to do share our testimony, that is like someone setting the ball on the tee ready for you to hit it out of the park.

As I have worked on my testimony in the last couple of years I have had many opportunities to share it. I have got to share it with truck drivers at work, with sales people, with customers, with my son’s 6th grade basketball team I coached, and many other times. If I would have not prepared I would have not been ready.

Another more seasoned gentleman in our group awhile made the emphasis that Jesus needs to be the hero and the main one in our story. It is about what Jesus did in our life and not about what we did!